Gunslinger Dynamics
Newbie
Question that i dont have the answer to. Why is 00-buck the standard for shotgun use and not specifically #4? This was asked and i dont have the answer to it.
Why use 00-buck/#1 over #4-buck?
- Thread starter Gunslinger Dynamics
- Start date
TCinVA
Amateur
#4 has a tendency to produce shallow penetration and the extra pellets in #4 cause serious problems for pattern accountability in most shotguns. #1 is as small as you want to go for defensive use as it still penetrates deeply enough to reliably hit vital structures, you can find #1 loads that pattern fairly well, and the risk of overpenetration is minimal. And to paraphrase the ballistics experts, a 12 gauge #1 load is probably the most lethal munition you can fire out of a shotgun.
1. Shallow penetration - people usually picture ideal circumstances when firing a shot. Our paper targets tend to portray ideal circumstances of a threat coming at you straight on with nothing in front of their chest. In the real world it isn't that simple. Generally speaking when you are pressing the trigger on a bad guy, it's because he's got something in his hands he's trying to kill you with. That weapon is likely to be in front of his chest at about arm height if he's facing you directly...which, if you look at yourself, is exactly where your most vital structures are. Further, he is likely to be wearing some form of thick clothing. So the pellets have to be able to penetrate through bones, tendons, muscles, and thick clothing to reliably hit the stuff that will actually FORCE this guy to stop the action that was placing your life in danger in the first place. Beyond that, we aren't guaranteed a full frontal profile. It's common to have to engage from a side or oblique profile where you have to get through the muscle and bone structures of the arm to penetrate deep enough into the chest to hit the most vital organs.
2. Pattern size - cramming more pellets into the shot doesn't help you hit those vital structures. It usually guarantees that only a small fraction of the payload will go where you want it to, while the rest of it wastes effort by hitting non-vital structures or, worse, misses the dude entirely hitting things...or potentially people...you didn't intend to shoot. Given that we are criminally, civilly, morally, and socially liable for every projectile that leaves our gun we should do all in our power to ensure that they all end up ONLY in the asshole that's trying to kill us. We aren't guaranteed that the dude will come at us from a full frontal profile. It is very common to only have a portion of the bad guy to engage because he isn't fully exposed, and sending a bunch of pellets into everything except that particular aiming point (which is very common with spready buckshot patterns usually given by #4) doesn't do much to help our circumstances.
1. Shallow penetration - people usually picture ideal circumstances when firing a shot. Our paper targets tend to portray ideal circumstances of a threat coming at you straight on with nothing in front of their chest. In the real world it isn't that simple. Generally speaking when you are pressing the trigger on a bad guy, it's because he's got something in his hands he's trying to kill you with. That weapon is likely to be in front of his chest at about arm height if he's facing you directly...which, if you look at yourself, is exactly where your most vital structures are. Further, he is likely to be wearing some form of thick clothing. So the pellets have to be able to penetrate through bones, tendons, muscles, and thick clothing to reliably hit the stuff that will actually FORCE this guy to stop the action that was placing your life in danger in the first place. Beyond that, we aren't guaranteed a full frontal profile. It's common to have to engage from a side or oblique profile where you have to get through the muscle and bone structures of the arm to penetrate deep enough into the chest to hit the most vital organs.
2. Pattern size - cramming more pellets into the shot doesn't help you hit those vital structures. It usually guarantees that only a small fraction of the payload will go where you want it to, while the rest of it wastes effort by hitting non-vital structures or, worse, misses the dude entirely hitting things...or potentially people...you didn't intend to shoot. Given that we are criminally, civilly, morally, and socially liable for every projectile that leaves our gun we should do all in our power to ensure that they all end up ONLY in the asshole that's trying to kill us. We aren't guaranteed that the dude will come at us from a full frontal profile. It is very common to only have a portion of the bad guy to engage because he isn't fully exposed, and sending a bunch of pellets into everything except that particular aiming point (which is very common with spready buckshot patterns usually given by #4) doesn't do much to help our circumstances.